Jurassic 5

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JURASSIC 5

Formed: 1993, Los Angeles, California

Members: Akil, MC; Chali 2na, MC; Cut Chemist, DJ; Marc 7, MC; Nu-Mark, DJ; Zaakir (Soup) MC.

Genre: Hip-Hop

Best-selling album since 1990: Quality Control (2000)

Jurassic 5 is a collective of six individuals who together helped bring back hip-hop to its early roots by employing the basic formula of vocal interplay and turntable beats.

Although its debut album was not released until 2000, the group came together in 1993 when members met at the Good Life Café, an open microphone venue in South Central Los Angeles. During the early to mid-1990s, the club was the epicenter of the underground hip-hop movement in the city. At the time, gangsta rap was shaking up the mainstream. Featuring stars like Tupac Shakur and groups like N.W.A., gangsta rap ignited controversy for its brutal portrayal of inner-city street life. As the 1990s wore on and the hardcore images of gangsta rap faded, mainstream hip-hop became filled with stars like Sean "P. Diddy" Combs and Shawn Carter, also known as Jay-Z. In real life, these artists doubled as corporate moguls and their music became less about the travails of street life and more about women, jewelry, and the enjoyments of living the high life.

As mainstream hip-hop went from guns and gangs to rhinestones and luxury cars, the underground concentrated on keeping it simple. Taking cues from early hip-hop innovators like De La Soul and Kool Moe Dee, Jurassic 5's music was about harmony and the simplest production possible. Its members originated from two hip-hop groups, Rebels of Rhythm and Unity Committee. After releasing the single "Unified Rebelution" under both names in 1993, they ended up forming a new group. Four years later, they independently released the self-titled album Jurassic 5 (1997), which ended up selling tens of thousands of copies and sparking the interest of Interscope, a major label. (Interscope released the album in 2000.)

Unlike their gangsta rap peers, Jurassic 5's music emphasizes peace and social justice and also pays tribute to their hip-hop heroes. With the backing beats of its two DJs, the four MCs combine the harmonic interplay of doowop singing with the individual freestyle rhyming of contemporary rap. Their debut, Quality Control (2000), was hailed by critics who declared it one of the freshest albums of recent years and a return to the playfulness, economic production values, and memorable melodies of hip-hop's roots. The group quickly became associated with other like-minded groups of the alternative hip-hop movement including the Roots and Dilated Peoples.

As with those groups, Jurassic 5 found they played to a mostly white audience—exactly the kind of fans who felt alienated from the ghetto tales of gangsta rap or the pimp fantasies portrayed in latter-day hip-hop. Jurassic 5 toured with singer/songwriter Fiona Apple and later shared the stage with Dilated Peoples, the Beat Junkies, and MC Supernatural for the "Word of Mouth" tour. The group returned two years later with its second album, Power in Numbers (2002). Once again breaking stereotypes, the album presents a variety of styles including soul, jazz, and pop, with songs ranging from political to party jams.

In 2002, Jurassic 5 joined the "Smokin' Grooves" tour featuring Lauryn Hill and the Roots. The group remained an alternative in the larger hip-hop picture, emphasizing group unity rather than individual braggadocio.